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'Dust people' starve in
Zimbabwe ruins

The Sunday Times, UK October 23, 2005

Christina Lamb, Harare

SOME call them the "dust people", others the "people with no address".
President Robert Mugabe's government has a more graphic term: "Sniff out the
rats who have sneaked back in" is the name of the latest campaign by police
and soldiers against the city dwellers whose homes they demolished earlier
this year but who have refused to flee. Thousands of Zimbabweans
are now living like animals in the midst of rubble, crawling in and out of
hovels less than 3ft high, fashioned from cardboard boxes and broken
asbestos.

With no means of earning a living - and
with aid agencies banned by the government from helping them - they are
forced to forage in rubbish for rotten vegetables or prostitute themselves
for the equivalent of 10p to feed their children. A doctor who managed to
get in said tuberculosis was rife.

These are the victims
of Operation Murambatsvina (drive out the filth), Mugabe's so-called urban
beautification campaign which, according to a damning report by the United
Nations, left more than 700,000 homeless or without an
income.

Yet last week the United Nations flew Zimbabwe's
president on an all-expenses-paid trip to Rome to celebrate World Food Day
in defiance of European Union travel sanctions. Flanked by bodyguards, he
proclaimed that there was no hunger in his country and blamed its problems
on George W Bush and Tony Blair, branding them international terrorists and
likening them to Hitler and Mussolini.

Such hypocrisy
comes as no surprise to the people squatting amid piles of debris in
southern Harare, who feel abandoned by the outside world.

There have been similar images of devastation from this year's hurricanes
and earthquakes. But this is man-made destruction - the revenge of a
president against the inhabitants of areas that dared to vote against him in
one election after another.

"This is the most depressing
thing I have ever seen in years of working in trouble spots," a UN official
said. "It's just all so unnecessary."

The bulldozers and
axes that destroyed thousands of homes and market stalls in June and July,
supposedly to clean up the cities, have left a nation teeming with homeless
people.

The International Crisis Group estimates Zimbabwe has
between 4m and 5m internal refugees - more than a third of the population.
They are the victims of Operation Murambatsvina, and workers kicked off
commercial farms seized in five years of violent land
grabs.

Yet Mugabe refuses to allow a $30m humanitarian appeal
by the UN for blankets and food. He objects to the use of the word
"humanitarian".

A consignment of 6,000 blankets and 37 tons
of food raised by the South African Council of Churches for the new homeless
was blocked at the border by customs authorities. First they demanded
duties, then they refused entry, claiming they needed proof the food was not
genetically modified.

Many of those who lost their homes
were dumped in rural areas, putting enormous strain on villages on the edge
of starvation. But others had nowhere to go. These are the people who ended
up in the dust of places such as Tsiga Grounds and Ground No 5 in the Mbare
district of the capital.

Among the hundreds crouching in
fly-ridden makeshift shelters is Zvikomborera, a 33-year-old woman with
short cropped hair who is blind in one eye. A single mother with two
daughters aged 5 and 13, she lost everything when armed police with dogs and
bulldozers arrived at her small cabin.

We met in secret
because Tsiga Grounds is patrolled by a vigilante gang who beat the
inhabitants and try to destroy the makeshift dwellings. Gang members
appeared both times I tried to enter.

"They tell us, 'Sons of
bitches, are you moles that live on the ground? Crawl back to the hole that
you came from'," Zvikomborera said. While Mugabe was enjoying Rome,
Zvikomborera explained how she is forced to live. Her children scour the
rubbish dump of a supermarket for rotten potatoes and tomatoes out of which
she cuts any good bits. The previous day, the two girls had shared one cup
of rice. Zvikomborera had nothing.

Until two weeks ago
they were getting food from a Buddhist organisation. Then the Department of
Social Welfare summoned aid agencies, such as World Vision and the UN World
Food Programme (WFP), and banned them from distributing any
more.

"They told us there is no such thing as urban displaced
people in Zimbabwe and there is no hunger in Harare," said one aid worker.
"They just want these people to die."

Like most of her fellow
dust people, Zvikomborera is still astounded by what happened to her.
"Before Murambatsvina we were poor but we were managing. My children were
clean and went to school. I collected scrap wood from carpenters and
industries and sold it for firewood.

"When the police and dogs
came, we lost everything. In one hour they had smashed my home, bed,
wardrobe. We have nothing left but a few clothes and pots and pans. I just
cried and cried.

"Now we live here on the dust. We have no water.
There is a tap at the bus station but they make us buy the water at Z$50,000
(£1.10) for 20 litres. Where can I get money now they have stopped us
selling things? My children cannot go to school as I have no address and
don't know where I will be in two weeks. Everyone is sick and
starving."

Some of her neighbours have turned to prostitution and
she is terrified she will soon have little option but to follow
them.

In most countries people would be fighting to leave such
appalling conditions. But Zvikomborera organised a petition of 200 other
settlers and, backed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, has gone to court
to fight for the right to stay in the dirt. "This may not be human but I
have nowhere else," she shrugged.

Among those living in the
filth is a tiny baby with eyes weeping yellow pus, born right there on the
ground. The infant's father, Moses, explains that when his wife went into
labour last month, he ran to try to get an ambulance. But he was told: "We
can't help people who live on the ground."

At another hidden
location in Harare I met a group of women, all mothers of disabled children,
whose homes had been smashed in front of them.

One, Mercy,
explained: "When police came in the early morning and told us to get out as
they would destroy our houses, I thought they would leave us as my daughter
has cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair so I did not take our possessions
outside.

"But then they came and said, 'We don't care about
disabled people,' and destroyed everything. My husband is a carpenter and
after they smashed the house they smashed his workshop and tools so we have
no means of making a living."

The family were forced to squat
outside and one night her disabled daughter, 14, was bitten by rats. "No one
will let us rent a place even if we had money, as my daughter's condition
means she cries out all night," said Mercy.

She and her family
have been informed that they must clear up the rubble of their demolished
house or be fined.

People like Mercy and Zvikomborera might have
had new homes. UN agencies were enraged last month when a pilot project to
resettle homeless slum-dwellers in rural areas was destroyed by one of
Mugabe's senior ministers."It was supposed to be a bridge-building
exercise with the government," said a UN official. "The idea was to choose a
place to set up a community, then replicate it all over the country, which
we would fund."

After consultations with the government, 150
families were taken to Headlands, 100 miles east of Harare, and given tents,
blankets and basic sanitary facilities. A ceremony was held with government
ministers.

Two weeks later Unicef officials found that all the people had
disappeared and the settlement had been destroyed by police and dogs on the
orders of Didymus Mutasa, the minister for security. Local villagers say the
resettled people were not from the right tribe.

Now, with rains due
this week, people all over the country are squatting on ground that will
soon turn to mud. During 10 days of travelling across the country - working
discreetly because the penalty for reporting without permission is two
years' imprisonment - I met a family in Marondera, east of Harare, living in
their neighbour's chicken coop next to the pile of rubble where their house
once stood.

In Gwanda, in the southwest, 60 families were dumped outside
the mayor's office two weeks ago. "People here are starving already," said
TZ Mnkandla, the mayor. "What kind of government dumps its people around the
country under the cover of night?" The government has announced a rebuilding
programme but critics say the numbers projected are vastly inadequate and
the new houses are going to supporters of the ruling party,
Zanu-PF.

Tose Wesley Sansole, mayor of the tourist resort of Victoria
Falls, said that while 6,000 homes had been destroyed, the government has
promised to build only 300. So far, just 20 have materialised. "I just feel
helpless," he said.

There is little doubt now that the real reason
for Operation Murambatsvina was to avert any risk of an uprising in the
cities after rigged parliamentary elections earlier this year.

This,
after all, is a country that until five years ago not only fed itself but
exported food. Justice for Agriculture, a commercial farmers' lobby group,
predicts that this year Zimbabwe will produce enough food for only one month
- some 200,000 tons against a minimum requirement of 1.8m.

Only about 200
commercial farms are still operating, compared with 4,500 five years ago
when "war veterans" were starting to seize white-owned land. Once-fertile
fields now lie scorched or weed-ridden.

If there was any doubt that
Mugabe is willing to see his people starve, The Sunday Times has learnt from
a company hired to rid food stores of weevils that there are WFP stocks all
over the country, a year's supply of grain and 1,000 tons of corn soya blend
to make fortified porridge.

Mugabe refuses to let this be distributed
because he wants to retain control of the food supply. Some has been left to
rot and last month more than 300 tons of bran was destroyed in Bulawayo and
Harare because Mugabe believed it was genetically modified. Asked in an
interview earlier this month about the hunger, Mugabe replied in Marie
Antoinette vein: "Let them eat potatoes. We have plenty of
potatoes."

But with the prices of basic foods spiralling out of control,
it is getting harder to feed everyone. The cheapest loaf costs 62p, a
daunting sum in a country where civil servants earn £15 a week. This is way
below the £45 a week that the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average
family needs. Experts are calling Zimbabwe the fastest-shrinking economy in
the world. The latest report from the UN Development Programme says it has
seen the sharpest drop in quality of life of any country not at war. The
quality of life is worse than in Mongolia and Equatorial Guinea, it says.
Deepening poverty and widespread HIV/Aids have reduced life expectancy to
36.9 years.

The worsening economic situation could have dangerous
ramifications. A third of the 40,000-strong army has been sent home on
hunger leave. Augustine Chihuri, the police commissioner, told a
parliamentary commission last week that his force had 1,500 vehicles instead
of the 7,000 it needs and was getting petrol only "in drips and drops".
Apart from the lack of fuel, which is available only on the black market at
£2.20 a litre, Harare is beset by water shortages and power cuts. To the
government's embarrassment, foreign delegates attending a tourism conference
last weekend went without water for two days at the Sheraton
hotel.

In the southern town of Masvingo, people said you could often
smell the hospital from miles away because so many bodies are piled up and
nobody can afford fuel to collect them from the mortuary. As if the country
were going backwards in time, the government has recommissioned its steam
trains and in some areas ambulances are being pulled by donkeys. The joke
visitors hear is: "What did Zimbabwe have before candles? Electricity." Yet
while the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans say they have never been so
poor, the elite are enjoying undreamt of wealth.

Only minutes from
Zvikomborera's hovel on Tsiga Grounds, I counted two brand-new lime green
Volkswagen Beetle cabriolets and several shiny new Mercedes-Benzes. Many of
Mugabe's cronies have launched lucrative schemes. All Zimbabweans with
vehicles have been ordered to buy new numberplates by the end of this year,
for instance. The only numberplate factory in the country is owned by
Solomon Mujuru, the former army chief and husband of Mugabe's
vice-president, Joyce Mujuru. Government officials are also reaping
dividends from access to US dollars at an official rate a quarter of the
market rate - and to fuel at a quarter of the black market price. One
official explained. "I get 100 litres of fuel at Z$23,000. I sell it on the
black market for Z$100,000 a litre.

I then use the money I made to
buy US dollars at the official rate of Z$26,000. I sell those dollars on the
market for Z$105,000. What is it you say? Quids in!" But the government is
running out of friends. Even China and South Africa are tiring of bailing
Mugabe out. Traditional sources of foreign exchange - tobacco and tourism -
have been destroyed and mining products such as gold are increasingly being
smuggled out of the country, leaving the regime to resort to theft. Seven
banks have been closed and their assets seized. Fearing expulsion from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government made a surprise payment of
£68m last month, allegedly after raiding the foreign currency accounts of a
number of big companies.

This left those companies unable to buy
imports and some have been forced to close. So concerned is the IMF that it
is sending a mission to investigate the source of the funds. It may all be
coming to an end. A leaked internal police report warned last week that
worsening economic hardships were fast eroding the patience of
long-suffering Zimbabweans. The report revealed that the Joint Operations
Command (JOC), which comprises the police, the Central Intelligence
Organisation and the army, has drawn up a list of 55 political and civic
leaders it regards as the "most dangerous individuals", who must be kept
under surveillance to ensure they do not organise an uprising.

Edmore
Veterai, the police representative on the JOC, wrote: "We must not fool
ourselves by believing that the situation is normal on the ground because we
risk being caught unawares. People have grown impatient with the government,
which they accuse of causing their problems and doing nothing to alleviate
them and they will do anything to remove it from power."

Sucking up to
Mugabe

The Sunday Times, UK October 23, 2005

Robert Mugabe was on typically outrageous form
last week. Invited by the United Nations on a jolly to attend the 60th
anniversary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, the
Zimbabwean president laid into his old foes. George Bush and Tony Blair, he
said, were "the two unholy men of our millennium", responsible for war,
pollution and, since the event was to mark World Food Day, hunger. Quite
what the UN was doing inviting this corrupt and vile man to attend the event
is beyond comprehension. For him to use the occasion to blame others for
creating hunger is beyond parody. Posing as a tourist, our
reporter Christina Lamb has just visited Zimbabwe and has seen the effects
of Mr Mugabe's policies on his own people at first hand. Thousands and
thousands of Zimbabweans are living like animals in the midst of rubble in
southern Harare, foraging among rubbish for food or forced to prostitute
themselves. They are the victims of their president's urban beautification
programme, which the UN itself estimates has left 700,000 homeless or
destitute. Kofi Annan himself said that Operation Murambatsvina - "drive out
the filth" - had done a "catastrophic injustice" to many of Zimbabwe's
poorest citizens "through indiscriminate actions, carried out with
disquieting indifference to human suffering". This again begs the question
of why the UN keeps sucking up to this tyrant.

In her report
today Ms Lamb describes the misery of those forced out of their homes by his
policies, doomed to existences that, to adapt Hobbes, are "nasty, brutish
and short". Aids and hunger have reduced life expectancy to less than 40.
The country's once-thriving commercial farms are going to waste. Mr Mugabe
continues to inflict man-made disasters on his people, while refusing to
accept humanitarian assistance from outside, or allow emergency food
supplies in Zimbabwe to be distributed to the hungry. A catastrophic
injustice is occurring. How long before somebody does something about
it?

Life on a Roller Coaster

I have only been on one roller coaster in my
life - I thought it was anexhilarating experience and was not at all
apprehensive when we sped throughthe air - in parts upside down and over
hills and valleys. But I am not surethat I would choose to live on one, just
too much of an experience and ashort term ride was enough.

Well here
in Zimbabwe life is very much like a roller coaster. One minute weare up and
the next down, we are upside down and then can see the world fromthe dizzy
heights of a crest - only to be plunged back down again bysomething that
someone says or does.

Just when I thought I could not be surprised, this
past week Gideon Gonocame up with a stunning "monetary policy statement"
that said and does muchof what we know has to be said and done if we are to
turn this ship around.The main thrust of what he said was that he was
scrapping the foreignexchange regime that he introduced a couple of years
ago and which has doneso much damage. In its place he has reintroduced a
market driven system andat the same time has allowed exporters to trade 70
per cent of their exportreceipts at the new market driven rates. The balance
of 30 per cent willhave to go to the Reserve Bank at a controlled exchange
rate - currently 26000 to 1 against the US dollar.

This is a big
shift in policy and will have an immediate and massive impacton the private
sector. What a pity it had not been done earlier. What itmeans is the
average exporter, hotel operator and any one else who generatesforeign
exchange in Zimbabwe will see their average local currency earningsrise from
an approximate average of 39 000 Zimbabwe dollars for each USdollar earned
to nearly 65 000 Zimbabwe dollars on Monday - a rise of 64 percent in
domestic earnings overnight.

On exports of US$1,4 billion a year, this
injects an additional 35 trilliondollars into the trading accounts of
exporters each year. With the totalvalue of the stock market here worth
Z$114 trillion at present, thisrepresents a massive 64 per cent increase in
their revenues while costsremain more or less constant. The value of this
injection in earnings isequal to 30 per cent of their total capital
holdings. Wow - watch this spacenext week!

But the statement does not
only deal with this key issue - it promises thatthe official exchange rate
of 26 000 to 1 will be adjusted gradually overtime until the average
exchange rate of both markets is the same - theso-called "convergence"
factor. He also promised the same with interestrates, but with less clarity.
So a huge boost to earnings by exporters andthe promise of more to come as
the convergence policy kicks in. At thatstage average earnings in local
currency will have risen by over a 100 percent compared to what it was last
week - and all that at the stroke of apen.

Then Gono turned his
attention to the gold industry and he has at lastgrasped the reality that
you have to pay a market related price for gold -or it goes elsewhere. So
the new regulations now provide for gold producersto receive full value for
their product - this should boost total foreignexchange earnings through
official and banking circles very substantially.The same impact will occur
in the tourism sector where foreign visitors willnow be able to pay for
their accommodation at much more reasonable ratesthan before. Tourism
operators will also enjoy much higher local revenuesthan
previously.

The statement takes on the other tough issues - security of
assets, the fullacceptance of the rights of investors. The need to stop the
farm invasionsand allow recovery in agriculture. The Reserve Bank Governor
goes so far asto say that if we want the economy to recover, we have to
start playing bythe rules. He actually went so far as to say that those who
continue todisrupt commercial agriculture were in fact criminals - he said
it, not acommercial farmer!

But we know that these remarks are
unlikely to resonate where it matters.The thugs and criminals who are
responsible for so much harm are in factpolitically sponsored and are immune
to rational argument and prosecution.Until that changes it will be
impossible to start to turn agriculturearound.

The statement and the
data it contains reveals an honest appraisal of theeconomic situation. It
has many weaknesses - the estimate of inflation inthe remaining two months
of the year is hopeless. We are headed for a verytough Christmas - perhaps
worse than 2003 in that respect. It is alsocompletely unrealistic in terms
of this coming agricultural season and theoutturn of the winter crop. The
Bank claims that 61 000 ha of wheat wasplanted. If that was true we should
be looking at 350 000 tonnes of wheat.Instead the largest miller in the
country predicts that its intake will be apaltry 20 000 tonnes.

Gono
calls on the country to ensure that we will not have to "contract out"food
production in 2006. He needs to understand it is just too late forthat - we
will again import two thirds of our food needs in 2006, even if wehave a
perfect season. Tobacco plantings are already down 30 per cent andhalf of
the new growers who came into the industry when the commercialgrowers were
displaced, have shut their doors. Even as he spoke, tobaccofarms were being
invaded and destroyed across the country.

But what the report does show
is that this is a resilient country. Despiteall that we have been through,
we are still functioning. Give us a marketdriven environment and security
over our person and assets and this economycould fly. What Gono did this
week was to lift the curtain on what thatmight just mean if we had the right
leadership. And while this was all goingon, the MDC continued to tear itself
apart, Zanu PF continued its willfuldestruction of what is left of the
economy and our social infrastructure andthe economy continued to shrink. No
one, it would seem wants to take thetime to consider just what would happen
if we all said, enough is enough. Weneed new, democratic institutions and
new leadership.

Gono's statement was silent on the issue of the continued
collapse of thecountry - but his figures showed the stark reality compared
to the othercountries in the region that are all doing well. But as one
businessman saidto me - it is a start.

A Trip To Bulawayo

October 2005.Judith Todd. (no copy right) To
renew the visa required to stay in South Africa I first had to return tomy
place of origin for a minimum of ten days by Friday October 7 which Idid,
returning safely to Cape Town on Thursday, October 20, 2005.

Our
South African Air Link flight from Johannesburg landed near Bulawayo'sflight
control tower now being enfolded into the vast new Joshua MqabukoNkomo
International Airport and we were bussed to "temporary" transitfacilities in
a hot, airless hangar. Fortunately work hasn't started onthe proposed five
star adjacent hotel as there is no sign that the newterminal itself will
ever be completed.

An article in The Standard of 16 October under the
heading Governmentstrangles Bulawayo council well summed up what I
found.

Essential city council services in Bulawayo are
collapsingbecause the local authorities' hands are tied and nothing can be
done toaddress the deteriorating situation, says the Bulawayo executive
mayorJaphet Ndabeni-Ncube. The local authority "is under the grip of
thegovernment and cannot do anything to try and provide solutions to the
city'sproblems". The ruling Zanu-PF government has always been
against oppositionMovement for Democratic Change - led councils, accusing
them of failing toprovide essential services. The accusations led to the
former MDC Hararemayor Elias Mudzuri and his Mutare counterpart, Misheck
Kagurabdza, beingejected from office. Bulawayo City Council is
facing a host of problems - a cripplingwater crisis, lack of vehicles for
refuse removal and serious shortages offuel which has forced the council to
suspend refuse removal services andthe distribution of water bowsers to
clinics, schools and suburbs worstaffected by the water crisis.
At the onset of the water crisis in August, the local authorityrequested the
government to declare it a water shortage area . butgovernment has been
dragging its feet. Declaring the city a water shortagearea would enable
the council to suspend or amend any water permits, andmake orders in
relation to the abstraction, appropriation, control anddiversion or the use
of water. "To be honest, we are facing a crisis and we don't know
what to do"Ndabeni-Ncube said. Bulawayo Agenda executive
director Gordon Moyo said the governmentwas watching with keen interest the
collapse of the city for politicalexpediency.. "They are looking at the
crisis with a political eye and not ahumanitarian one."
Ndabeni-Ncube, like any other mayor in Zimbabwe, has been strippedof the
powers to make decisions that relate to the running of the city.Almost all
services, which need local authority approval, have to passthrough an
interministerial committee.

I called on Ndabeni-Ncube. He, the MDC
Member of Parliament DavidColtart and the lawyer Washington Sansole were
amongst the few people I metwho didn't appear traumatised by the present
regime. I learned that afterGovernment had objected to statistics from the
city revealing the mountingscale of deaths from "malnutrition" a delegation
from Police andIntelligence had called to find out where the statistics
originated and wereastonished to learn they were government statistics
routinely collected bycouncil each month over many decades. Since that day
the council has beendeprived of access to these statistics.

I
walked through the city and found some vending has restarted
afterGovernment's destruction of the informal business sector. Flower
sellersshelter inside the railings surrounding the city hall. People
carryvegetables in bags or on "scanias", pushcarts, so they can run if
"police",often Zanu (PF) youth militia in police uniforms, descend. Some
old womensit where former stalls used to be with little piles of tomatoes,
or asolitary cabbage. Verging on the residential areas there are people
next totrees or bushes with small stacks of goods to sell. You would have
to sellfifteen oranges at $5000 each to be able to make the $30000 profit
necessaryto buy one loaf of bread, if it is available.

People in
general seem clueless about the fate of their fellow citizenswho were
abducted at night from church shelters, loaded on to lorries anddumped in
rural areas. Some talk vaguely of people from formerly smarthouses under
tile destroyed by the State in suburbs like Bulawayo's CowdrayPark finding
life fading in their "rural homes" like Tsholotsho where theywere abandoned
by the authorities with no food or water. No one wanted totalk about this
although someone did say that UN agencies are willing tohelp with shelter,
food and water but apparently are being obstructed atevery turn by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Simbarashe Mumbengegwi.

The churches
bravely do what they can. One pastor told me that althoughan unknown number
of the dispossessed had been "lost" there are records ofabout 1500 others
still subsisting in Bulawayo and 4000 at Victoria Falls.The churches helped
about 2000 from the Falls to go to villages despite adire situation there
regarding food and water. Two children at the Fallswere savagely wounded by
police dogs. One known human has been eaten bylion and all those not yet
resettled exist in the bush with wild animals.These displaced Zimbabweans
are in hiding and only emerge, apparently fromthin air and desperate for
help, if they are sure that those approaching arefriends. I met two such
people. One, a toothless man so old that theirises of his eyes were white,
was no longer able to fend for himself. Theother, also old, had been
granted a patch of land by a fellow-human and nowneeded material to build a
hut. The churches are trying to provide suchinternal refugees with food for
a further three months but what then? Asthe Financial Gazette, reputedly
now an organ of the Central IntelligenceOrganisation, reported on October 19
even the government is becoming alarmedthat "the majority of the country's
population of about 12.5 million wouldnot be able to feed itself ... until
the next harvest" - whenever anotherharvest will be. It is said that today
US$1 = Z$100,000.00. This meansnothing to most people but during the 13
days I was in Bulawayo the price ofmealie-meal soared from $75,000 for 10 kg
to $99,000.00.

I have three memories I cannot dislodge from my mind. One
is of an oldwhite woman leaning, arms folded, on her shopping trolley like
aself-propelling crutch and reaching the till with only one item, a packet
ofpronutro serial. Another is of a thin young couple, a baby strapped to
itsmother's back, standing wide-eyed, silent and apparently transfixed by
therealization that there was absolutely nothing in the entire
supermarketwhich could be purchased with the little sheaf of useless notes
the man washolding. Finally, going to the airport last Thursday we passed
through thedusty suburb of Paddonhurst. Something carrying maize must have
passedearlier and there were a few kernels scattered on the tarmac. A
blackskeleton in rags was swaying here and there, collecting them. The kind
ofrags indicated that this once may have been a woman.

Top MDC man slams Tsvangirai

News24

23/10/2005 10:05 -
(SA)

Harare - A senior official in Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the party will participate in next
month's controversial senate elections and anyone who thinks otherwise
should "just shut up", the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported.

In
what appeared to be a clear attack on party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who
Saturday claimed the MDC would boycott the November 26 poll, deputy
secretary general Gift Chimanikire said lists of party candidates for the
senate were being compiled.

"We are going ahead with the national
executive council's resolution (to participate in the polls) and those who
don't want to participate should stay out of it and just shut up,"
Chimanikire told the paper.

"Why do they have to campaign for
non-participation? Is it that they are looking defeat in the face?" he
asked.

Wrangling within the six-year old MDC over participation in the
elections is turning increasingly ugly.

Tsvangirai is adamant the
party should stay out of the polls because Zimbabwe's current electoral
system "breeds illegitimate outcomes".

But senior MDC officials back
participation because they do not want to cede President Robert Mugabe's
ruling party too much ground.

State-run newspapers have been following
with keen interest the recent infighting within the MDC. Many analysts
predict the party will tear itself apart. Mugabe has said the chaos proves
it is an "irrelevant" party.

South African farmers see barren future with evictions on
horizon

The Telegraph

By Stephen Bevan in Ventersdorp, North West Province(Filed:
23/10/2005)

He does not look like the leader of a resistance movement.
Yet, as one of the first half-dozen white farmers in South Africa to be
forced to sell up under its land reform programme, Pieter Jacobs is at the
forefront of a battle likely to be as bitterly fought as that in
neighbouring Zimbabwe.

For eight years Mr Jacobs, 53, and six
neighbouring landowners in the Ventersdorp district of North West Province,
have been disputing the claims on their farms by the Bakwena tribe, who say
that the land was taken from them under apartheid laws. Now Mr Jacobs has
been told that the farm where he has lived for 30 years must be returned to
the Bakwena, a ruling that has profound implications for other white
farmers.

He will be paid £940,000 for the 5,700-acre farm, but claims
that it is worth three times that. His 32 workers and their families will
lose their homes and their livelihoods but receive nothing.

"I'm not
against land reform but it must be done in a proper way," Mr Jacobs said.
"Why force a productive farmer off his land?

"We are being seen as the
bad people in South Africa, but if I leave this farm, where are my workers
going to live and work? The new owners will have nothing. The government
gives them no assistance.

"It's the same as Zimbabwe, only less brutal.
At the end of the day the result is the same. They are taking taxpayers'
money and buying productive farms to give to people who won't be able to
produce on them because they have no training or equipment."

The
sudden haste on the part of South Africa's Commission on Restitution of Land
Rights is because, more than a decade after the end of the country's
apartheid regime, whites still own more than 80 per cent of commercial
agricultural land. As part of their attempt to tackle the legacy of
apartheid, black South Africans were encouraged to lodge claims for land
that they were forced to sell or that was designated as whites-only under
the old racial zoning laws.

Of the 9,000 land claims lodged by blacks
in rural areas, fewer than 500 have been resolved, prompting the Government
to extend the deadline for settling all claims by a further two years to
2007 - to the embarrassment of President Thabo Mbeki, who wants more rapid
results.

The slow pace of land reform arouses strong passions among the
black majority and has come to symbolise the government's failure to deliver
in other areas, such as housing and basic services.

At first it
proceeded only where landowners were willing to sell for an agreed price,
and expropriation was seen as a last resort - if nothing else, for fear of
scaring off foreign investors.

Now, however, the gloves are off. Blessing
Mphela, the regional land commissioner for Gauteng and North West Province,
announced the country's first expropriation in Lichtenburg three weeks ago,
and said that he was preparing to serve notices on another five farms - Mr
Jacobs's among them.

Part of Mr Jacobs's opposition no doubt stems from
his desire to get the best possible price. He claims that the commission
will not pay a fair price for the "improvements" he has made to the land,
including two farmhouses and an abattoir that he said would cost £2.2
million to replace. Mr Jacobs lives on the farm with his wife, Mariette, and
27-year-old son, also called Pieter, who would one day have taken over the
business.

"Please be fair to me," Mr Jacobs said. "It took me 20 years to
build this business, but for the last 10 I've been able to do nothing with
it because of the land claim. Now I must start all over again."

There
is no disguising the sense of bitterness among these farmers about what they
regard as a politically motivated attack upon them. Mr Jacobs and his
neighbours say that they have never had a chance to contest the Bakwena
claim - and now they never will, because the government has changed the law
to enable it to expropriate land without first going to the land claims
court.

Like many such claims, the roots of the dispute are murky.
According to official records, the land was bought from an Afrikaner farmer
in 1880 by the Wesleyan Missionary Society, which leased the land to the
Bakwena. When the Church later sold up, it paid the Bakwena compensation for
terminating their leases and helped them to buy another farm.

The
Bakwena say that they gave money to the Church to buy the land for them and
it had to be registered in the Church's name because black people were not
allowed to own property in that area.

There are no records of this, they
say, precisely because it was designed to circumvent the law.

Mr
Mphela says that the farmers had not previously challenged the validity of
the Bakwena claim, and accuses them of trying to drag out the negotiations
even more.

"They want to refer it to a court because they know that court
processes are intractable," he said. "This is an attempt to buy time. But it
won't help any of us because the dispossessed communities then think the
only option is land invasions."

Hendrik Viviers and his son, Sarel,
who farm about 1,400 acres and are also facing expropriation, believe that
they know why the commission won't go to court.

"They knew their case
wouldn't stand up so they waited until they changed the law," Sarel said.
"Now all we can do is go to court to challenge the price."

Hendrik
said: "This was one of the first land claims in South Africa and they want
to make an example of us. It's a political issue. Mugabe chased the farmers
in Zimbabwe off their land and now Mbeki is doing it too."

Mr Jacobs said
that there are other farmers who would be happy to sell. With the price of
maize half what it was two years ago, farming is a tough business.

He
said that he will not stay in South Africa. "If they take my farm from me I
won't buy another here," he said. "What is to say that in another five years
they won't take that away from me as well?"

Cracks widen in MDC

Zim Standard

By our staff

THE Movement for
Democratic Change is at the crossroads. Tomorrow it will know how many of
its members have rebelled against its President Morgan Tsvangirai and will
be participating in Senate elections, set for 26 November.

A meeting
called for yesterday failed to produce an anticipated united front, and
going into nominations tomorrow, three provinces in the western region
remained defiant yesterday, confirming their participation - itself a slap
in the face for MDC the leader.The widening cracks in the opposition come as
a new party calling itself the Zimbabwe Democratic Party was launched last
week. It claims that it will act as catalyst for real change.

The
ghost of the early '60s which led to the split of Zapu, resulting in the
formation of Zanu could also visit the MDC if it fails to come up with a
last minute truce.

Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC spokesman on Thursday
night told The Standard that there was no point in participating in the
elections.

"In view of the damage and public fall out that has taken
place because of the split, it is my personal feeling that there is no point
in going into the Senate elections. However, this should not be misconstrued
as handing victory to those who break the constitution and resort to
violence."

But David Coltart, the MDC legal secretary and MP for Bulawayo
South said the resolution of the national council was binding until and
unless it was reversed. "The council voted for participation and it is
binding until it is reversed by the same council," Coltart said.

It
emerged yesterday that Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South provinces have
decided to field candidates in all constituencies.

By yesterday
afternoon, the Bulawayo province was still hunting for candidates while
Matabeleland North and South had completed the exercise with all 10 seats
having candidates for the poll.

The Standard has it on good authority
that Matabeleland South has also come up with the list of candidates which
will be submitted to the Nomination Court that will sit on
Monday.

However, sources revealed that one of the candidates was former
MDC Member of Parliament for Pelandaba Jefret Khumalo. Some of the
candidates in Matabeleland South have been identified as Siyabonga Ncube of
Insiza and Readers Tlou, an MDC provincial council member from Gwanda.
Andrew Tapela is expected to represent the MDC in Bulilima
constituency.

Nkayi MP, Abednico Bhebhe, confirmed that he had the final
list of candidates.

On the other hand, provinces such as the
Midlands, Masvingo and Manicaland are no longer going to field
candidates.

Tsvangirai appeared to have prevailed over the problems
yesterday when he held a national executive meeting at Harvest
House.

MDC national chairman, Isaac Matongo, one of the group dubbed
"Senate brigade" attended the meeting.

However, the others in the
group Gift Chimanikire, Welshman Ncube, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube and Gibson
Sibanda did not attend yesterday's meeting indicating that the divisions are
far from over.

Asked why he did not attend the meeting, Welshman Ncube
said: "The last time I checked, a meeting of the national executive was
supposed to be called by the secretary-general or the deputy
secretary-general and we have not called for such a meeting."

Ncube
would also not discuss what transpired in South Africa where he met South
African President, Thabo Mbeki on Friday, saying: "I am not authorised, by
the party, to comment on that."

Sources close to the MDC President said
Mbeki telephoned him last week about the delegation of MDC officials in the
country. Tsvangirai reportedly told Mbeki that the crisis in MDC was an
internal matter which could only be solved through dialogue by colleagues in
the party.

In an apparent admission that the opposition had failed to
whip its members into line, Tsvangirai's spokesperson, William Bango, said
yesterday all MDC members who would take part in the elections would be
doing so as independents.

Gono, Mugabe head for clash

Zim Standard

By Kumbirai
Mafunda

RESERVE bank Governor Gideon Gono on Thursday appeared to be
turning on the heat on the government, imploring it to desist from farm
invasions and make significant reforms if the war against inflation is to be
won.

Gono rounded on land invaders labellng them "criminals, economic
saboteurs" and "unruly agents keen on reaping where they did not sow". He
was presenting his Monetary Policy statement for the Third
Quarter.

His irritation appears to have been brought about by the fresh
wave of invasions initiated by people loyal to the governing Zanu PF
party.

Commercial farmers in Nyazura and Chipinge are fighting off a wave
of invaders after their properties.

Farming sources told The
Standard, Gerald Balance, a commercial farmer was last month removed from
his Ripplemid Farm and has since left Nyazura.

Other remaining commercial
farmers are facing similar disruptions to their
activities.

Commercial Farmers' Union vice president, Trevor Gifford,
said reports of farmers being evicted were coming from all corners of the
country almost on a daily basis.

"It seems like they just want to get
rid of all white farmers and they are not even worried about production,"
Gifford said.

A clearly irritated Gono said the disruptions will rob the
country of the much-needed foreign currency and will scare investors from
committing their resources in the country.

He said some farmers had
invested in irrigation schemes using foreign exchange to import
infrastructure, among many other improvements using Reserve Bank money,
which must be repaid.

Gono added: "Our hearts at the Central Bank bleed
with each story of such levels of economic disregard, such irrationality and
such economic sabotage. What we require at the present moment is a
moratorium of such invasions or distances. We need to concentrate, face
down, on ploughing and planting."

He vowed that Zimbabwe should never
import grain next year, as doing so would gobble the resources needed to
import fuel and medical drugs.

".from where we stand, anyone invading
farms now is not working for the interest of this country; is a criminal and
ought to be locked away until after the harvest," Gono said.

Gono's
comments come a few weeks after the 17th Amendment to the constitution,
which nationalized all agricultural land, thereby rendered courts powerless
in matters regarding land disputes.

"Where no respect is given for the
sanctity of private property, investors become apprehensive and instead
plough their resources in other more secure destinations. It is for this
reason that we implore the relevant authorities to institute stringent laws
that protect private property." He also called on State Security, Lands,
land Reform and Resettlement minister Didymus Mutasa to finalise the land
audit exercise.

Yesterday Mutasa, who announced what he termed Faster
Track, a programme meant to get land from the remaining commercial farmers
two months ago, refused to comment.

"That
is up to government to deal with those issues. But obviously there is need
for orderliness in farms to enhance productivity. I don't know the context
in which the statements were made."

Farming sources told The Standard
Gerald Balance, a commercial farmer, was last month removed from his
Ripplemid Farm and has since left Nyazura.

Other remaining commercial
farmers are facing similar disruptions to their
activities.

Commercial Farmers' Union vice president, Trevor Gifford,
said reports of farmers being evicted were coming from all corners of the
country almost on a daily basis.

"It seems like they just want to get
rid of all white farmers and they are not even worried about production,"
Gifford said.

A clearly irritated Gono said the disruptions will rob the
country of the much-needed foreign currency and will scare investors from
committing their resources in the country.

He said some farmers had
invested in irrigation schemes using foreign exchange to import
infrastructure, among many other improvements using Reserve Bank money,
which must be repaid.

Gono added: "Our hearts at the Central Bank bleed
with each story of such levels of economic disregard, such irrationality and
such economic sabotage. What we require at the present moment is a
moratorium of such invasions or disturbances. We need to concentrate, face
down, on ploughing and planting."

He said that Zimbabwe should never
import grain next year, as doing so would gobble the resources needed to
import fuel and medical drugs.

".from where we stand, anyone invading
farms now is not working for the interest of this country; is a criminal and
ought to be locked away until after the harvest," Gono said.

Gono's
comments come a few weeks after the 17th Amendment to the constitution,
which nationalised all agricultural land, thereby rendered courts powerless
in matters regarding land disputes.

"Where no respect is given for the
sanctity of private property, investors become apprehensive and instead
plough their resources in other more secure destinations. It is for this
reason that we implore the relevant authorities to institute stringent laws
that protect private property." He also called on State Security, Lands,
land Reform and Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa to finalise the land
audit exercise.

Yesterday Mutasa, who announced what he termed Faster
Track, a programme meant to get land from the remaining commercial farmers
two months ago, refused to comment.

Hungry residents consume 'contaminated' beans

Zim Standard

By our
staff

AS food shortages continue to haunt urban dwellers, hundreds of
Chitungwiza residents consumed beans suspected to be contaminated that were
dumped on the outskirts of the town last week, The Standard has
established.

Scores of residents - mainly women and children - trooped to
a dumpsite near Unit L graveyard on Sunday last week to collect tonnes of
beans that had been dumped there and either ate or sold them to unsuspecting
customers.When The Standard visited the dumpsite, the poverty-stricken urban
dwellers had already taken home all the beans, with some reselling them at
different locations in the town.

"We have consumed some of them and
nothing has happened to us. We are selling some because we managed to fill
two big bags," said a woman who identified herself as Mai Murehwa of Unit
L.

She did not know who dumped the beans or why they had been thrown
away, especially at a time when Zimbabwe is experiencing a severe food
crisis. More than one million people are in need of food aid in the country
and the number is expected to increase.

Some residents said although
people who consumed the beans might not show any signs of illness now, the
effects might be felt in future.

"Why would one dump food if it is not
contaminated? People might feel safe now, but they will suffer from the
effects in a few months or years to come," said Douglas Gwenya of
Chitungwiza.

The Standard had not established the source of the beans by
the time of going to print yesterday. However, some residents claimed that a
lorry marked National Foods had dumped the beans, while others said it was
the Catholic Development Commission.

However, officials from both
organisations denied any knowledge of the dumped beans.

Father
Makusha of St Theresa's Church in Chitungwiza, which at times distributes
relief food, said he was not aware of any dumped food in the
area.

National Foods chief executive officer, Mike Manga could not be
reached for comment but an official at the company's depot in Chitungwiza
professed ignorance about the dumped consignment.

A police officer,
at Makoni Police Station, confirmed that several tonnes of beans had been
dumped in Chitungwiza but could not say whether they were contaminated or
not.

Chitungwiza mayor Misheck Shoko also confirmed that tonnes of beans
were dumped in the town but was also in the dark as to who or why they were
abandoned.

Govt shuts down minister's mine

Zim Standard

By Nqobani
Ndlovu

BULAWAYO - The government has shut down a Gwanda gold claim
belonging to the Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social
Welfare, Abedinigo Ncube after mining inspectors discovered its operations
did not meet basic safety requirements.

Ncube acquired the gold
claim, Caesar East Two, on 30 September after he allegedly evicted gold
panners with the assistance of the police following reports that they had
struck a rich vein of gold.The minister is alleged to have applied and
acquired a mining licence in Harare on the day in question and used it to
claim ownership of the gold claim.

However, the mine was shut down
following a visit on 11 October by inspectors from the Ministry of Mines and
Engineering Department who found that its operations did not comply with
safety requirements.

The regional mining engineer, Julius Moyo, confirmed
that the gold claim had been shut down.

A report compiled by two
inspectors of the Mines and Explosives Department Tobias Nyoni and Lawrence
Rwodzi outlining the reasons for its closure noted various irregularities
taking place at Caesar East Two, which contravened Zimbabwe's mining rules
and regulations.

It reads in part: "Following the inspection by
inspectors of mines and explosives, our observations are that the mining
method is unsafe and very dangerous to the people, (and there is) an illegal
use of explosives in breach of the Explosives Regulations of
1989.

"There is an uncontrollable number of people at the mine including
some who don't appear in the workers register as required in terms of
Section 296 of the Mining (Management and Safety) Regulations
1990.

"There are also several unprotected shafts no sanitary facilities
as stipulated in Section 9 of the Mining (Health and Sanitation) Regulations
of 1995."

Parts of the recommendations in the report were to employ
appropriate mining methods, the use of explosives in accordance with the
Explosives Regulations Section 172 of 1989, and above all to correct most of
the anomalies for the safety of the general public.

FAO anniversary, a missed opportunity

Zim Standard

LAST week's
60th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation, was a God-sent opportunity for resource-strapped Zimbabwe to
appeal to the world community for assistance with food aid needed for an
estimated 4 million Zimbabweans during the next six months.

Zimbabwe
sidestepped appealing for food aid, preferring to unleash a blistering
attack on British Premier Tony Blair and US President George W Bush by
laying the blame for world hunger on their doorsteps.President Hugo Chavez
of oil-rich Venezuela applauded, congratulated and embraced President Robert
Mugabe for his courage and revolutionary spirit in standing up to the big
"bullies". Chavez was careful not to berate the "bullies"
himself.

Last year during one of the troughs in the worsening fuel
crisis, President Mugabe visited Venezuela, ostensibly to negotiate for
fuel. No oil was forthcoming. In its place Chavez offers embraces and
exhortations for theatrics that do not improve Zimbabwe's worsening
condition.

President Mugabe's regional counterpart, Bingu wa Mutharika of
Malawi did not travel to Rome for the anniversary celebrations, choosing to
be with 5 million of his countrymen smarting from a food crisis similar to
Zimbabwe's. Wa Mutharika used the occasion of the FAO anniversary to declare
a national disaster in a bid to get more international donor assistance, and
appeal for food aid. Such appeals help to strengthen mobilisation of
international aid efforts. Zimbabwe should have launched such an appeal. It
has, however, been coy, hamstringing UN efforts to activate an international
appeal on behalf of Zimbabweans.

President Mugabe has consistently
denied that the country faces food shortages and consequently has refused to
appeal formally, to the international community for help. Yet Zimbabwe is
using scarce resources it can not afford to import insignificant quantities
of grain - five days to two weeks' consumption - merely maintaining a
semblance of a response to the internal food crisis. But it has neither
resources nor capacity to deal effectively with its man-made humanitarian
crisis. There is little doubt the country is witnessing a tragedy of
unprecedented proportions. One has to be a blind or be so far removed from
reality not to see the suffering around us.

But even at this hour of
this largely man-made crisis, Zimbabwe's pre-occupation is not with
addressing the multitude of internal problems or failure to provide and
maintain basic services. It is with committing an estimated $60 billion to
the creation of an upper house - the Senate - for which nominations take
place tomorrow. The question demanding a response is: What will it achieve,
for Zimbabweans who have been subjected to such mass impoverishment and
deprivation?

Understanding the rationale and impetus behind this move,
merits a study of the ruling party's 2005 Parliamentary elections manifesto,
which proclaimed that, "Zanu PF government, always with the people of
Zimbabwe at heart". Among many other pledges, Zanu PF promised an end to
sanctions; an end to factory closures; no disruption to fuel supplies;
faster economic turnaround and more foreign currency inflows. The results
are self-evident. Seven months after those promises, Zimbabwe is worse off
than it was in March 2005. But apparently to the Zanu PF leadership, there
is no crisis and Zimbabweans are among the most contented on the
continent!

In the area of health, it proclaimed "health for all", but it
is common cause that Zimbabwe lacks the resources to staff health
institutions, it is unable to retain its health professionals and has to
rely on expatriate staff, while hospitals have inadequate or no drugs to
treat patients. The recently rolled out Anti-Retroviral Treatment programme
is hopelessly under-funded while domestic production of ARV drugs is
threatened so soon after the roll out programme's introductory
phase.

So whose interests does Zanu PF have at heart when it pushes ahead
with a programme, which it abolished in 1987 and at a time when the country
is faced with challenges that are more pressing than re-introduction of the
Senate? Right from the beginning Zanu PF was set up to serve the political
interests and agenda of its leadership. It employs pyrotechnics in order to
hoodwink or beat up Zimbabweans into believing that its agendas are for the
good of the majority.

No government worth its salt would fast-track
the re-establishment of a Senate, which requires enormous resources, at a
time when the country is overwhelmed by so many challenges. The Senate is a
Zanu PF project for exclusive benefit of Zanu PF. This is what the
nomination process tomorrow is all about and this is what the 26 November
Senate elections will be all about.

If the ruling party wanted to
extend its patronage and largesse to the political deadwood among its ranks,
it should have encouraged both external and internal investment and then
introduced an empowerment clause, which would be used to warehouse those of
its members and supporters it now wishes to reward with Senate seats.

Firms shut as Beitbridge runs dry in water crisis

BULAWAYO - Several businesses have been forced to shut in the
Beitbridge border town due to serious water shortages caused by a burst
water pipe and low water levels in the town's reservoirs.

According
to chairman of the Beitbridge Business Association (BBA), Salatiel Roy
Muleya, other firms scaled down operations and were likely to shut soon if
the situation was not brought under control.Thousands of workers, including
civil servants, may also be affected if the water crisis persists. "The
situation is really bad as we are facing serious water shortages in
Beitbridge. Several businesses have stopped operating and others are likely
to follow suit within the next few days if it is not rectified," said
Muleya, also secretary of Beitbridge Residents' Association
(BRA).

"Businesses and residents that are not seriously affected have
water reservoirs or boreholes. These are very few compared to the large
number of those affected. As I speak, patients are being screened at the
local hospital which is now admitting only critically ill people. The rest
are told to go home," he said.

He said ZINWA was told about the burst
water pipe under the town's main bridge linking Zimbabwe with South Africa
but nothing was done.

"The burst pipe is not the only reason why we do
not have water as Beitbridge's Upper and Lower dams are dry. We have over
the years tried to influence ZINWA to build several water reservoirs here,
but nothing has been done."The current water crisis is the worst ever in the
history of Beitbridge. Some people have gone five days without bathing or
having water for domestic use. Building work at the "Operation Hlalani
Kuhle" site has stopped. Life is now unbearable here," he said.

One
of the border hotels has stopped taking bookings while three others with
boreholes and water reservoirs are operating without adequate water
supplies. Beitbridge Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer, Alfred
Mbedzi, said the dams were dry and the purification plant was operating
below capacity.

However, he would not comment on the extent to which
businesses and residents were affected by the crisis.

He said ZINWA
was aware of the burst water pipe and perennial water woes faced by the town
but had not repaired the pipe and upgraded the water purification
plant.

"To make matters worse, the Limpopo River, our primary source of
water is dry, and it is difficult to pump water from the river bed. It will
be disastrous if we don't receive early rains," he said noting that Zhove
Dam could be harnessed to bring the situation under
control.

Matabeleland South Provincial Water Engineer, Tommy Rosen, was
not available for comment.

Death knell for Zimbabwe economy

Zim Standard

By Kumbirai
Mafunda

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's administration continues to create
classic pieces of tragic business theatre. And the preferred rostrum appears
to be parliament building.

Using its superior numbers in parliament,
the governing Zanu PF party recently rail- roaded the passage of the
Constitutional Amendment Bill No 17, which bestowed President Mugabe's
administration with sweeping powers to grab land and bar owners from
contesting in court the seizure of their land by the state.Now
properties and estates in which foreigners have interests are up for grabs
in a new wave of invasions. According to Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa all land which appeared in section 5
Notices gazetted from June 2000 to September 2005 is now State property and
available for distribution to landless Zimbabweans.

The amendment, which
opposition groups disparage as piecemeal, saw around 4 000 farms converting
overnight to State property. Not content with the amassed land, a mop up
exercise is underway with those properties, which escaped the net being
accounted for, and gazetted for acquisition.

Among the casualties are two
listed companies South African-owned Hippo Valley Estates and
German-controlled Border Timbers whose properties are protected under
Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements (BIPA) signed between their
respective governments and Harare.

Despite contesting the forced
acquisition two of Hippo's estates in the Lowveld are up for grabs. Hippo is
listed under a Section 5 Notice while Mkwasine is listed under Schedule 7 of
the constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill No 17, which vests land in the
State without compensation other than for improvements. Border has its
timber plantations in the Eastern highlands listed and scores of landless
peasants are moving onto its properties.

However, Chinamasa vows that
properties listed under BIPA won't be spared, in brazen disregard of
bilateral agreements with other governments protecting their nationals'
investments in Zimbabwe.

"What we are now doing is targeted
nationalization," said Chinamasa. BIPA will not prevent acquisition.
Properties that enjoy BIPA status will be acquired but full compensation
will be provided."

Though the move is upsetting international investors
it is most likely to anger regional powerhouse South Africa, which
repeatedly assured its nationals owning land in Zimbabwe that their property
was protected under BIPA with Harare.

Through its subsidiary Anglo
American Corporation Zimbabwe (Amzim), Anglo American Corporation of South
Africa is one of the largest private investors in Zimbabwe. Its investments
include mining, agriculture and properties among others. Many of these
activities were pioneering developments in Zimbabwe, which now provides a
strong economic foundation for the country's industrial base.

But
Chinamasa appears to have crossed swords with Zimbabwe's economic supremo
and RBZ Governor Gideon Gono over seizures of properties protected under
BIPA. In July, Gono implored the government to remedy BIPAs, which were
inadvertently infringed upon during the emotive years of the land grab
exercise.

"It is deeply pleasing that our Leadership share this
progressive vision, as reflected by the commitment by the President during
his address to the Nation on the occasion of the opening of the Sixth
Parliament of Zimbabwe, towards rectification of all residual BIPA
infringements," Gono said. "As Monetary Authorities, we call upon and urge
all arms of government to ensure that the leadership's vision for mutual
cohesion with our investor community is nurtured and turned into
reality."

However, it is these incongruous statements that are alienating
would be investors as the government is turning its back on judicious
economic reform.

"That undermines the rule of law which is a
principal ingredient to investment protection," says Tapiwa Mashakada, the
MDC spokesperson on economic affairs.

And now after "successfully"
convincing the IMF to defer Zimbabwe's expulsion Gono has to fight another
war, a more onerous one this time as international investors whom he has
repeatedly tried assuage are knocking at the central bank's doors
questioning the security of their investments. And in their hands they are
clutching page 23 of Gono's July monetary policy statement in which he
guarantees protection of investments.

Apart from battling the property
seizures Hippo is also grieving over its US$2.68 million seized by the
central bank. The RBZ, which is desperate to raise hard currency for
critical imports, alleges the sugar growing company violated the Exchange
Control Act by failing to declare the foreign earnings within the prescribed
period. Under Zimbabwe's archaic foreign currency regulations, exporters
should liquidate their hard currency earnings within 30 days of receipt.
Hippo says the seizure of the much-needed funds would adversely impact the
company's ability to import critical inputs and thus seriously undermine
production.

Both Anglo and Border say they are not in possession of the
facts of compensation.

"All we know is the constitutional amendment
and I haven't been informed about compensation," Godfrey Gomwe, Anglo's
chief operating officer and Amzim's chairman told Standardbusiness from
South Africa. And Border insists: "As far as we are concerned they have no
intention to acquire Border Timbers. We enjoy BIPA status."

Hippo,
the Lowveld based sugarcane grower warns of disastrous consequences because
Mkwasine Estate accounts for 13% of the company's cane requirements. Already
the country is crippled by a critical shortage of sugar on the domestic
market which when it is available on the vibrant black market the selling
price is prohibitive. In spite of the entire hubbub, Border considers the
issuing of new listings on its estates flawed.

"The company has assumed
that this is an error on the part of the authorities," Border says. Because
of the increasing number of illegal occupants on its properties the timber
producer reports that incidents of arson fires are on the
increase.

Critics caution that the blatant contempt of property rights
will accelerate the wreckage of Zimbabwe's economy owing to the dearth of
foreign direct investment. They warn that the flagrant seizures are damaging
international investor perceptions of Zimbabwe as foreigners interrogate the
wisdom of committing their capital in Harare which would be tantamount to
throwing their money down the drain

But whether the government is
justified in appropriating the vast tracts of land for redistributing to
landless citizens or not, it is ago

Divisions in MDC could be a blessing in
disguise

Zim Standard

THE leadership crisis within the MDC that has been
precipitated by the divide over participation in the coming Senatorial
elections was long overdue.

The party leadership has been in the
doldrums for the last three years, during which time the "doves" (those that
work through the Zanu PF parliament and its partisan judicial system) have
held sway over the "hawks" (those who mobilize the people and international
support to force President Robert Mugabe out of power).The next logical
step from boycotting the Senatorial elections should be calls for MDC
parliamentarians to withdraw from the Parliament of 2005, and for the party
to try to regain the initiative lost after 2002 (with the attendant risks of
facing the wrath of the regime) - and therein appears to be the crux of the
matter for those in opposition to the Morgan Tsvangirai camp.

After
the "trenches" of 2000, Parliament has for some become a comfortable and
much valued perch from which to react to local developments and driven
(US/Thabo Mbeki/AU...) initiatives.

One would predict that MDC
participation in the Senatorial elections would find re-enforcement of the
MDC split by way of the final results published by the government. One
possible scenario thereafter would see Zanu PF manoeuvres to draw some of
the resulting group of opposition parliamentarians/senators into a Zanu PF
unity "solution", be it directly, in conjugation with Jonathan Moyo/
UMP/Third Way or as independents.

Tsvangirai has been wise and shown
characteristic courage by finally causing this crisis before his party
disappears altogether. The next logical step for the MDC would appear to be
a convention to resolve the whole of issue of leadership, guiding principles
and strategies.

After all, the "split" of 1963 rejuvenated opposition to
Ian Smith's regime and gave us a new political movement and
party.

That the threat of dividing Zimbabweans is rearing its ugly head
yet again is unfortunate, given the potential that the MDC initially took
good advantage of for bridging the racial and regional divides of
yesteryear.

Govt grossly unfair to suffering teachers

Zim Standard

MONTHLY
contributions by teachers towards the HIV and AIDS fund have been imposed on
every teacher in the country without consultation. Teachers meekly accepted
the arrangement when neither they nor their relatives actually benefit from
their contributions.

It is on record that teachers more than personnel
from any other professions are suffering from HIV and AIDS. Many more of
their relatives have been victims of this dreadful disease.Many teachers
and their relatives are dying every day because they cannot afford the
life-prolonging drugs. The burning questions right now are: Where are their
monthly contributions going? Why are teachers not given control of and
access to their contributions?

The government is being grossly unfair to
civil servants and teachers in particular by not caring for them when they
fall sick. The government concerns itself with trivial matters such as their
self-imposed tsunami, Chimurenga this and Chimurenga that. With all these
useless activities by the government, our education system is collapsing.
Rome is really burning while the emperor fiddles.

It is a great shame
for government ministers to waste their time issuing threatening letters to
teachers who are contemplating strike action. Instead of issuing these
letters to the threatened profession, the government ministers should be
busy finding out ways of solving the crisis facing Zimbabwe. By the way,
what percentage are government ministers, including the President himself,
contributing towards the AIDS levy?

As a parting shot, I implore the MDC
to stay away from the useless Senate elections. The time is also now for the
MDC to abandon the Parliament and plan other strategies. Zimbabwe is ruining
itself without any effort from MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai. Just remember that
the MDC is the biggest mass organisation which is dreaded by President
Robert Mugabe. We should not allow the MDC to end up like the many other
bogus parties we had before its launch.

MDC: looking beyond leadership crisis

SYMPTOMS are rather easy to see, whether they are in an
illness, or in the prediction of whether or not there is going to be a
bumper harvest in a forthcoming rainy season.

The only problem that
arises from a symptom of anything is that it can have varied sources, and
can mean a whole host of things or issues. The same can be said of the
current impasse within the MDC over and about participating in the Senate
elections or alternatively the somewhat technical discourse around whether
the democratic movement can be assumed to be democratic after the president
ignores the majority will of what is called its National Council. Critically
spoken, for, anyone with a serious disposition towards Zimbabwean politics
would therefore ask themselves whether or not the divisions within the
leadership over what should be a cut and dry case are symptoms of other
issues within the party or else are exactly what they are, divisions over
whether or not they should participate.When the 2005 parliamentary elections
came around, even prior to the new monster being created by Zanu PF called
Senate , there were perhaps sound arguments for not participating in order
to prove the illegitimacy of Zanu PF to the international community, as well
as to bring it to the negotiating table were very public knowledge.
Eventually the idea of participating in the parliamentary plebiscite took
credence, against the wishes of civil society organizations and the
scepticism of some of its members. The reasons for participating were given
as wide consultation with the public in the form of rallies and the decision
of the National Council.

With the senate elections, the debate on
participation, like that of the 2005 parliamentary elections was, presumably
arrived at through rallies and finally the National Council which went
against the position of the party president in deciding to participate. This
situation is now commonly adjudged by the media and those that consider
themselves politically savvy, to be seriously threatening to split the
party.

And in order for an explanation on the senate election decision of
the MDC, I hazard to go back to the issue of symptoms. Does the indecision
of the MDC over the last two elections show a coherently indecisive party or
is it indicative of deeper problems about leadership, let alone ideological
focus of the movement? Or is it supposedly healthy for there to be the
occasional serious disagreement at leadership level within a political party
that is large and dynamic? These questions, and indicative of their
importance, point to a two critical issues; first that there is need to
re-visit the reasons why the MDC was formed, second that there is need to
explain the symptoms within the context of elitist opposition politics and
decision making.

To address the first; that of the reason why the MDC
was formed, one needs to take into account the fact that the party was
premised largely on the back of the labour movement and therefore its
essence was unionist in outlook. In other words, it was premised on the
concept of a fluid movement of workers that, either in socialist or other
closely related terms felt that the time was now ripe to form a labour based
party to acquire and entrench a social welfare State.

In the same
vein, the party was to be predicated upon the building of a less
bureaucratic system of politics; one that is not commandist in its structure
and its policy outlook. This approach was garnered from the experience of
the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) where major decisions were not
meant to be undertaken without wider consultation with members or the
general public and also in the ambit of the slogan, "A people driven
constitution, Now!"

Having said that; the party in its formation had
no singular intention to become just another ordinary opposition political
party, comfortable with pursuing power within the political set up as
defined by Zanu PF. It sought to revolutionarize Zimbabwean politics, both
within the confines of a democratic electoral system as well as where the
situation became untenable, with non-violent mass action.

But equally
and related to the first issue outlined above, the second factor around he
senate elections that this article seeks to address is the issue of elitist
opposition politics. For example, when the MDC leadership claimed to be
consulting the 'people' through rallies, it is a wonder that the results of
such consultations are never made public. Instead what are accorded
prominence are the decisions of the clique called the National Council, an
organ which has not really been tried and tested in terms of its legitimacy
with the ordinary membership for over five years. And I do not consider the
conducting of primary elections as legitimizing the party's internal
leadership, because the latter are fraught with patron client relations that
are temporary and at best have been divisive at grassroots levels of the
party. In short, whether the president of the MDC lost a national council
election or not, the issue is that the elitist decision-making within the
party is clearly undemocratic and does not adequately take into
consideration the political fallout that may result from such "un-consulted"
decisions.

Elitism has the tendency to emerge in a period where a party
or an organization becomes too comfortable with itsself, and negates the
principles upon which it was founded. Tsvangirai gravely erred in allowing
this sort of elitism to creep in, where a system of patronage about who
participates in parliament or not becomes the order of the day. Or
alternatively, where the "top six" begin to behave as though they were a
Zanu PF presidium and in the process battle for control of as elite an organ
such as the National Council as if that is what the party was formed
for.

What is to be done, one might ask. Is the MDC misplaced in
participating in the Senate elections or in not participating? The answer to
the matter lies in revisiting the party revolutionary potential and calling
a spade a spade when it comes to elections as a means of effecting
democratic change in the country. It is no longer a feasible route and
Morgan Tsvangirai, for all his previous mistakes, is right on this one. The
party must begin to think around elections and seek other means of effecting
democratic change.

This also means that the party must re-link itself
with the masses it claims to represent, re-organize its structures and
outline an organic understanding of its role in the future of Zimbabwe.
There is no room for central committee members in the MDC, of for people
that falsely claim to be coming form the grassroots when in fact their
mandates are clearly in need of refurbishment

The president of the
MDC must now begin to think and act like the revolutionary the history of
Zimbabwean asks him to be. That is a person who has the people's ear, the
people's support and their interests at heart. And in making the bold
decision to fight those that want to reduce the MDC into a typical
opposition political party run on elitist lines, then he is finally on the
right path to bringing freedom to the doorstep of every Zimbabwean.

Poll advocates the sell-outs in MDC

Zim Standard

sundayfocus by Ralph
S Paratema

THE past week has been dominated by headlines of bickering
within the opposition MDC which now seems to be split into two distinct
camps.

One camp led by the party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been
advocating for a boycott of the election while the other allegedly led by
its Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube is insisting that the party
will contest the election.While Tsvangirai has been arguing that the
result of the election has been pre-determined by President Robert Mugabe
the other camp has argued that failure to participate in the elections will
be equivalent to donating its urban dominance to the ruling Zanu
PF.

The two major elections that have been held in the country since the
formation of the MDC have clearly shown that the election management bodies
responsible for the organising and running the elections are so blatantly
partisan that they can not be relied upon to run elections that have a
semblance freeness and fairness.

Presently the elections are supposed
to be run by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission which was recently
constituted as a constitutional body. Needless to say its reputation is in
tatters following the amateurish manner in which it handled the 31 March
parliamentary elections. The chairperson Justice George Chiweshe is himself
an appointee of Mugabe who himself is an interested party in the outcome of
the electoral process. It is clear that for any reasonably free and fair
elections to take place in Zimbabwe it is imperative that a truly
independent electoral commission be set up. Such a commission should not
have its chairperson appointed by Mugabe but should be answerable to
Parliament.

The Senate elections have not been preceded by a reasonable
constituency demarcation exercise. Instead the delimitation exercise was
conducted by whoever drafted the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.
17). Harare, a traditional MDC stronghold, for instance, was allocated the
same number of Senatorial seats as Mashonaland Central in spite of the fact
that the number of registered voters in the former are almost twice as those
in the latter. Urban constituencies have been merged with rural ones in
order to dilute the opposition's influence thereby reducing its already
remote chances of winning the election. In view of the foregoing, a
completely new delimitation exercise should have been conducted in order to
draw up constituencies with the same number of registered voters.

It
is shocking how those who are saying that the MDC should take part in these
elections seem to suffer from selective amnesia. Both the MDC and several
other civic organisations have been calling for the scrapping of Mugabe's
powers to appoint non-constituency Members of Parliament yet these same
people seem interested in perpetuating this fraud by agreeing to participate
in an election in which Mugabe will appoint six senators. The other eight
seats will be reserved for chiefs in line with Mugabe's policy of politics
of patronage. These traditional leaders view themselves as an appendage of
Zanu PF and have traditionally voted with the party even when making
decisions that are detrimental to the welfare of their subjects.

There
are still other impediments to a free and fair election in the form of a
hopelessly partisan media which seems uninterested in covering MDC
activities unless it is doing so to show that the party is on the verge of
disintegration. A case in point is the ZTV's coverage of the ongoing crisis
in the MDC on last Tuesday.

The political analysts who were invited
to comment were the shameless Tafataona Mahoso and the former Geography
teacher Caesar Zvayi. Both men are well known Zanu PF apologists. The sole
national broadcaster also sought to give the impression that only white
people are opposed to the MDC's participation in the elections. It is my
view that to call for participation in the Senate elections is in itself a
betrayal of those who have been fighting for a free Press.

There is
still a plethora of repressive legislation that obtains in Zimbabwe. The
Public Order and Security Act immediately comes to mind. It was used by the
police on Sunday when trying to break up a meeting that the opposition
leader tried to address in Chitungwiza. The lack of voter education has been
glaring with most people interviewed on ZTV openly saying they do not
understand what the duties of the Senate are.

There was also a massive
displacement of urban voters during the diabolic "Operation Murambatsvina"
and a majority are still unregistered. It is obvious that it is not possible
to hold reasonably free and fair elections unless a completely new voters'
roll has been compiled.

My questions to those who want to participate
are: What lessons have you learnt from the March election? Why do you want
to pursue selfish personal interests at the expense of the national
interests? Have you ever wondered why Mugabe gleefully welcomed the
participation of the MDC in this election? Do you think that Morgan
Tsvangirai's proposal that the money Mugabe wants to waste on the elections
should be given to suffering civil servants does not make sense? What
difference will your presence in the Senate bring to us considering that you
are already outnumbered in Parliament where the Bills emanate from in the
first place? If you opposed the Bill in Parliament why should you welcome it
now?

In my view the Senate is Mugabe's last supper whereby he has decided
to resurrect his politically deceased cronies. This is Mugabe's way of
thanking these people for keeping quiet while he reduced this country to the
basket case that it has become. Those who intend to participate in the
elections must remember that they will be remembered in history as sell outs
who betrayed all Zimbabweans, dead and living, who have fought for the
holding of free and fair elections, removal of repressive legislation, a new
people driven constitution and a democratic and legitimate government chosen
by the people through a transparent process.

These men are sheep in wolves' clothes

Zim Standard

sundayopinion by
Tamuka C Chirimambowa

THE Senate soap operas in the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), the first one starring Welshman Ncube, co-starring
Paul Themba Nyathi, and Gift Chimanikire, and directed by Robert Mugabe has
been an exciting and at the same time a sad fiasco.

The second one
starring Morgan Tsvangirai, co-starring Nelson Chamisa, Lucia Matibenga with
guest actor Grace Kwinjeh, and directed by the oppressed people of Zimbabwe.
My interest is embedded in the first soap, although at certain times I would
make references to the second one.Foremost, it should be understood that the
Senate is a baby of the bogus cut and paste child of Zanu PF's incest with
the constitution of Zimbabwe. Secondly, it should be noted that the MDC
from, the onset, never supported Constitutional Amendment No.17 that has
brought the Senate. Third, it should also be observed that even the
pro-senate star actor Welshman Ncube never voted for that amendment. Fourth
and last is who is fooling who?

Before Enactment of Constitutional
Amendment No.17, here is what they said:

"The passing of the Constitutional Amendment Bill (NO.17) by the
Zanu PF majority in parliament represents a flagrant disregard for
democratic rights, standards and processes. A constitution should be a
symbol of national consensus. This consensus can only be established if a
constitution is formulated in full consultation with the people. Zanu PF was
presented with an opportunity to work with the people and formulating such a
constitution. It rejected this opportunity and instead doggedly pursued a
piecemeal approach to constitutional reform; an approach which essentially
aimed to ensure that the constitution is shamelessly corrupted to support
the political objectives of the ruling elite at the expense of the interests
of the people.

"The creation of a Senate is in no way a move to
improve legislative oversight. It has simply been created as an extension of
presidential patronage, aimed at soothing bruised egos within the ruling
party. The new constitutional provisions represent a serious assault on
citizens' basic rights and freedoms. The government will now be able to
seize the passports of its critics. It will also have the power to acquire,
without compensation, any land which it defines as 'agricultural land'.
These arbitrary powers are an assault on property rights. Land in peri-urban
and urban areas could now be subject to compulsory purchase. Under the
amendment, victims will have no right of appeal."

"The adoption of the Constitution Amendment Bill (No 17) by the
Zimbabwe Parliament on Wednesday 2 September was a systematic retrogressive
move for the country. It will exacerbate the crisis of governance which has,
within five years, driven Zimbabwe to the precipice of being a failed state.
By amending the constitution for the seventeenth time since independence
twenty five years ago the Zanu PF government has sent out an unequivocal
message to the people that it has no respect for the constitution.
Conversely, it cannot expect the people to take the constitution seriously;
a factor that will serve to intensify the perceived lack of legitimacy
within Zimbabwe's body politic in the eyes of the people. This dichotomy
goes to the very heart of Zimbabwe's ills as it symbolises the absence of
national consensus on core governance issues and the total lack of public
trust in the current Government.

"A constitution should be a symbol
of national unity. It should represent a contract between those in power and
those who are subjected to this power. It should define the rights and
duties of citizens and the institutional arrangements that keep those in
power in check. To ensure its legitimacy, a constitution must be formulated
in strict accordance with the principle of inclusiveness. There must be
broad public participation and ownership of the final product. The passing
of the Constitution Amendment Bill (No 17) is a recipe for disaster. Neither
the ruling party nor Parliament had the constitutional mandate to introduce
such a Bill. Attempts to engage the public, and canvass their views on the
proposed amendments, were perfunctory. The whole process was totally lacking
in legitimacy. The net result is that the Government has made the crisis
worse. To help tackle the crisis we need to come together as Zimbabweans and
formulate a constitution in a transparent and all-inclusive
manner.

"We all need to have ownership of the constitution and use this
document as the basis for healing the divisions bedevilling our society and
retarding our development as a nation.

Welshman Ncube
(Newzimbabwe.com, 29 September 2005)

"There are fundamental differences
between the March Parliamentary elections and the position we are in right
now. It is very clear that the national council lifted the suspension on
election participation and that position has not changed. The operative
resolution of the council is that we are in the elections."

This is
what they said and wrote verbatim. So exciting, fascinating, depressing and
full of hypocrisy is the soap opera. What chameleonic antics by the staring
and co-starring actors? That is food for thought. So clearly these men
articulate that the whole Senate issue and the constitutional amendment that
ushers it is a political fiasco and mafia on the electorate and the question
that makes one wonder is what has Saul met on the way to Damascus? Co-actor
Nyathi sums it vividly up,

".an approach which essentially aimed to
ensure that the constitution is shamelessly corrupted to support the
political objectives of the ruling elite at the expense of the interests of
the people."

Who would blame the people if they also conclude: "The quest
to act in the Senate by the MDC council, who from the onset vehemently
opposed the script as anti -people and egocentric drama is driven non-other
than the desire to seek a second bite of the cherry for those who missed in
the March elections." Imagine being a Senator driving a 4x4, going around
sourcing Money in the name of the people, getting hefty allowances from
government, access to resources due to political office and all the
goody-goodies associated with political elitism.

"The
MDC was founded on principles which include democracy, freedom, transparency
and justice and that the party is determined to uphold these principles and
values. And will not allow one person or a group of persons to destroy
them."

Does this man ever know what a principle is? What principle is it
Sibanda to go about saying Mugabe is a dictator and at the same time
legitimising his actions? Look at Prof. Welshman Ncube's comments that
neither Zanu PF nor Parliament had the legitimacy to amend the constitution,
then what boggles the mind is where did then the legitimacy come from? This
is the sad end to the first episode of the Senate soap opera. But do soaps
end? No, definitely in my next piece I will deal with the second part; the
one starring Morgan Tsvangirai.